


IRL - In Real Life

by Lazy_Turtle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, background NaruHina - Freeform, background kibaino, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-07-24 16:18:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16178693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazy_Turtle/pseuds/Lazy_Turtle
Summary: When you're hiding behind a computer screen, you can be anyone - cool, confident, outgoing, good, evil, cruel, villainous. So what happens when you step outside into reality? Are you still who you pretend to be? Or does this new context change you? Sakura Haruno likes to think she's the same person - but when when her online guildmate appears in her real life, all bets are off.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a story that will be jumping between the real world and the realm of the inter-webs, specifically video games. It'll be fairly obvious when the change occurs (*HINT* one universe has swords, magic, and teleportation). I feel like this should go without saying but this is both AU, and likely more than a little OOC for a number of characters. In this story I intend to explore a bit of the phenomenon that occurs when you give someone the anonymity of a computer screen to hide behind - a lot of people are a lot different in video games than they are in person.
> 
> Now for those of you who are NOT gamers, I will be putting an index at the bottom of every chapter that explains some of the gamer lingo that will inevitably permeate this story. Hopefully this will help everyone who reads this to enjoy it on the same level, with as little confusion as possible. Be sure to pay attention to it if you don't know something! Each item will only be listed once! After it is defined, it will not show up in the index in later chapters! And in a likely futile effort to prevent offending anyone, for the purpose of the index, I will be treating it as though none of you have any clue about video games whatsoever.
> 
> I DO NOT OWN ANY PART OF NARUTO
> 
> Please enjoy!
> 
> (P.S. Please review!)

The monster was on its last legs – the giant sand spirit was already crumbling at the edges as it reared back for yet another wave of attacks. There were only three people left alive in the party, the other two sitting in limbo as they waited out the final act of the fight. A female avatar rushed forwards, swinging her shield up in front of her to blunt the rush of sand that flew at her, drawing aggression away from the other two players as they flanked and attacked. The attack let up long enough for all three to push in at once and deliver a killing blow – landing one of the players a bonus.

"That  _sucked_." Huffed a female voice. "I had to switch my spec halfway through the fight."

"Oh, is  _that_  why you were a shit healer?" sneered one of the dead party members as the system displayed the victory cutscene.

"This is why girls shouldn't play video games." Chimed another.

"I don't want to hear shit from the asshat who wanted me to pocket heal them while they tried to one-v-one a boss monster." Snapped the first voice. "The tank was at half health and you -"

"Go back to the kitchen." Interjected another voice.

"E-excuse me?" the girl sputtered. "The fuck did you just say to me?"

"Pretty sure I didn't stutter." The voice responded.

"- Sera, just mute them or something until it lets us out of the que." Sighed another male voice. "I'm not in the mood to listen to you argue with strangers again."

"Shut up Tannis." Sera grunted, even as the loud clacking of keys filled the voice chat. "Re-ported, biyach."

"I really don't know why you let them rile you up like that." Tannis sighed. "It's never worth it."

"Like you're any better," she scoffed. "You behave like the king of fucking salt half the time, so you have no room to talk."

The alert went up on the screen displaying that the instance was ending, offering another que, and the female avatar – a heavily geared cleric with bright pink hair – declined it. The sound of a teleporter went off, and the environment dissolved from a dessert into a bustling city street. Two of the members from the party materialized side by side in the midst of the crowd. One was the harassed cleric, the other was a fighter dressed in black with a large two-handed broadsword.

"Remind me why I let you drag me into randomized dungeon ques?" Tannis grumbled, scrolling through the loot acquired from the previous battle. "All that ever happens is that you end up in fights with people."

"Can it." Growled Sera. "Did you get anything good from that final drop?"

"A lesser magic sword and a wind scythe." He said. "Nothing I can use – I'll probably just put it up for auction."

"Fair." His companion allowed absently as she adjusted settings in the menu in front of her – her armor suddenly changing from plate to light mail, and her shield and warhammer being replaced with a stylized quarterstaff. As the new weapon settled into her hand, she turned to grin at her friend. "Hey, I know we're cutting out after this, but would you be available to head up to the northern region tomorrow after school? They added a new questline in the last patch that's supposed to set things up for the storyline in the new expansion next month."

"Can't" he said, his mic sound fluttering for a moment as he made a sound like he was stretching. "Moving tomorrow."

"Oh shit, right I remember you telling me about that." Sera said, her voice indicating a frown. "I still think that's fucked – you having to move in the middle of a semester."

"Not like my opinion would matter much to his majesty." Grunted her friend.

"Dude, your family sucks."

"Tell me something I don't already know." He snorted. "I'll be out for a few days. I'll send you an IM when I get my computer set up."

"Cool." She affirmed. "I'll see if I'll be able to pencil you in when that happens."

"Good _night_  Seraphina." He said, seconds before his avatar vanished.

* * *

On the other side of a computer screen, a girl with petal pink hair and vibrant eyes of emerald green was chuckling, a smirk on her face even as she logged out of the system and shut down the computer. Taking off her headset she stood from her desk chair with a stretch and a yawn before pulling the lamp chain and settling herself into the bed a few feet behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> INDEX - organized in order of appearance
> 
> IRL - In Real Life, this is a term usually used by players to indicate that they are talking about something that is occurring outside of the game they are currently playing. (Ex. "In game, I play as a muscly fighter with blue hair, but IRL, I'm just a skinny little brunette.")
> 
> Party - A group or team of players, usually five or fewer. A group made of of multiple parties is called a Raid.
> 
> Avatar - The character controlled by a player
> 
> Aggression - In games, aggression is essentially the amount of attention a player generates. It determines who/what a monster is most likely to attack.
> 
> Spec/Specialization - Many games have different types of rolls or jobs that a player may be classed as. Within these classes may be a subclass or specialization that a player may or may not be able to switch between
> 
> Healer - The player responsible for keeping the rest of their party from dying. Usually there is one healer per party.
> 
> Cutscene - A cinematic scene or forced dialogue within the game that is most often triggered by an accomplishment or victory.
> 
> Pocket-Heal/Pocket-Healer - A healer that focuses exclusively on another player instead of their entire party.
> 
> Boss/Boss Monster - The final creature defeated at the end of a dungeon or quest.
> 
> Tank - A player that is responsible for holding monsters' attention. Usually wears the heaviest armor in the party and has the highest amount of health/life points. Usually there is one tank per party.
> 
> Que - A que is a sort of sign-up system that is provided to players to pre-construct a party with enough balanced members to enter a scenario/instance.
> 
> Reported/Reporting - Some players will behave negatively or use abusive language that interrupts/impacts/offends other players, most every game has a system to report these players for reprimand. (In this case, the players in Seraphina's party were heckling her for being a female player and unfairly blaming her for what went wrong)
> 
> Salt/Being Salty - Behaving bitterly towards something or someone.
> 
> Cleric - A versatile class capable both in combat and in using Divine Magic. They make excellent healers, though they can fill other rolls to a lesser extent if the need arises.
> 
> Fighter - A class that deals primarily in close range/melee combat, primarily filling the roll of DPS
> 
> DPS - Otherwise known as 'Damage Per Second'. Typically they deal more damage over a shorter period of time than a tank would in order to make up for having lighter armor and/or health
> 
> Questline - A chain of tasks that usually progress as a story.
> 
> Patch - A patch is a small update to a system.
> 
> Expansion - Rather than end the game and release a sequel, many games will simply add a massive update that is known as an 'expansion'. These updates will usually come with new areas/maps to explore, new quests, new dungeons, etc. These large updates are typically announced months if not a whole year in advance of their release.
> 
> IM - Instant Message


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POINTS TO WHOEVER KNOWS WHAT BOOK IS MENTIONED AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER.

Curtains were drawn back and a light flicked on to coincide with the voice that was suddenly disturbing the slumber of the bedroom's occupant. "Oi, Sakura! Mom said if you don't get up now you're going to be late for school."

With a small groan, the pinkette on the bed rolled away from the disturbance, snuggling deeper into her quilt. There was a sigh, and then the blanket was ripped away from her form by a pair of strong hands. Sakura gave a yelp and only just stopped herself from tumbling to the floor. Her emerald green eyes snapped open to glare hatefully at her foster brother.

"What the hell, Naruto!"

The blond returned her glare with a remorseless grin. "I told you, mom said you're going to be late if you don't get up."

She frowned before stretching with a loud groan, wincing when a few of her vertebrae popped. The movement was punctuated with a loud yawn before she stood up and meandered over to her closet. Naruto threw the quilt back onto the bed and chuckled at his sister. "Late night with your virtual boyfriend?"

"You mean my friend that is a boy, whom I am guildmates with?" she asked pointedly. "Yes. We've been dungeon crawling while we wait for the new game expansion."

"You're so adorable when you talk like a nerd." Naruto cooed. He narrowly dodged the sweatshirt that was thrown at him.

"Shut up and get out of my room so I can get dressed." She growled.

The boy laughed again and made his exit. "D'you want a bagel?"

"Yes please!" she called after him as the door shut.

Naruto Uzumaki had been the foster child of the Haruno family for almost three years now, after his last family had fallen through saying that he was too hyperactive for their household, and Sakura had begged her parents to take her friend in. She had always thought that she could see where his last family were coming from, but also thought that perhaps they had just been a bit too stiff-necked for a boy like Naruto. He was like a ball of radiant sunshine that bounced around their home – he brightened every room and warmed the space he occupied with smiles and boisterous laughter that seemed like it could shake the house.

Mebuki and Kizashi had actually approached their daughter some weeks ago about officially adopting him into the family. Her response had been to snort at their idea and roll her eyes. "Took you long enough."

Ever since then, Naruto had been even more cheerful than usual. So, it really wasn't much of a surprise that when Sakura had finished changing cloths and made her entrance into the kitchen, it was to find Naruto humming to himself as he spread cream cheese across his bagel. His sister, having never been a morning person, glared at him in distaste, cursing his cheerfulness. With a sigh she sat down at the table and pulled the second bagel that remained on the table closer. Though she could only be so grumpy with him – he had already smeared honey-walnut cream cheese across her bagel.

"Coffee?" Naruto asked around a mouthful of food, already pouring what seemed like half the pot into a travel mug.

Sakura shook her head. "I'll manage without thanks. Where's mom?"

"Getting the mail." Spoke a voice behind her. Before Sakura could even turn her head, Mebuki Haruno walked past her, laying a few envelopes and a flyer from a local store on the table as she passed. "You two should get a move on. Doesn't the bus leave your stop at seven?"

"Seven-fifteen." Corrected Sakura with another yawn. "We've got time. I just really need the shop to finish with Vulture Bait – I hate taking the bus."

"No, you hate sharing a bus with Lee." Naruto said with poorly repressed laughter.

"Shut up and go get your stupid backpack." The pinkette growled, shoving the rest of her bagel into her mouth and stalking towards the front of the house, grabbing her bag from beside the door as she left, shouting her farewell and affection to her mother over her shoulder.

It didn't take long for Naruto to catch up with her. "So, what've you got going on this afternoon? More gaming with Tennis?"

" _Tan_ nis," she corrected before shrugging. "And no, his family is in the middle of moving and he's got to pack up his computer today. He'll probably be AFK for about a week, if not longer."

"I see you're rather broken up about that." The blond responded with mock seriousness.

"Oh, certainly." Sakura agreed with a solemn nod before her face cracked and she released a snort of laughter. "Really though, I won't deny I'm a little disappointed. For being an internet friend, he's pretty great – if a little dark sometimes."

"Dark?" he asked, frowning.

His sister shook her head, internally regretting what she'd said. "It's nothing. Anyway, how's tutoring been going with Hinata?"

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" Naruto stuttered, appearing to be caught off guard by the change in topic. Sakura snickered as she watched the tips of his ears and the edges of his cheeks grow pink.

"I thought you wanted to ask her to the dance?" she asked, choosing not to comment on how flustered he suddenly was. He was like this every time the dark-haired girl came up in conversation, ever since she'd started helping him pass math. Sakura thought it was both cute and sickening – though Ino would tell her she was just jealous that he had someone he liked so much.

"I thought about it." He admitted a bit sheepishly. The pair passed the remainder of their walk and subsequent wait at the bus stop discussing why it would/wouldn't be particularly romantic if he asked her out after he won his boxing match on Friday – in all his sweaty victorious glory.

The conversation between the mismatched siblings more or less ground to a halt when the bus appeared around the corner. Sakura frowned and released a heavy breath. "Into the breach."

"You really can't stand Lee, can you?" Naruto chuckled.

"He's just too much." The pinkette groaned. "He's always going on about the beauty, power, or vitality of 'youth'. It's annoying – not to mention a little creepy."

"He ~ likes ~ you." Naruto snickered as the doors to public school transportation were opened and all the smells and sounds that went with it. It was with a grit of teeth and a wistful thought for her car that Sakura stepped onboard. Naruto wasted no time finding a seat for himself with a pair of boys Sakura recognized from his martial arts club, plus Lee whom the pinkette dodged by pulling her headphones from her pocket and into her ears as she made her way quickly to one of the open seats at the very back of the bus.

* * *

"So, I was told your virtual date abandoned you." Drawled a voice. "Does that mean you're available for hire as a questing partner this week?"

Looking up from her English book, Sakura rested her cheek in her hand with a smirk on her face. "Is that a hint of jealousy I'm hearing, Shikamaru?"

"As if." He snorted, sitting down across from her. From her position, she could already see Choji making his way towards their table. It was lunchtime, and Sakura had taken up her usual post in the very corner of the cafeteria.

"Where's Ino?"

"Off being a social butterfly and romancing Kiba." He said, popping one of his fries in his mouth.

The young woman rolled her eyes before glancing over to the table where the mentioned teenager usually sat. Sure enough, there was Ino, half sitting on the edge of the table as she laughed at something the wild Inuzuka boy had said. "Figures. Hey Cho."

"Sakura." The heavyset boy responded as he sat down. "Heard you and Naruto rode the bus this morning, what's up with that?"

Sakura shivered a little at the memory. "My car is in the shop – the fuse box shorted out and they're waiting on a part."

"I didn't know that, you should have asked me for a ride." Shikamaru said, his lips quirking into a frown.

She shook her head. "It's fine, really. The mechanic said he'd have it by tomorrow."

"I somehow feel like this is that car's way of getting back at you for treating it so poorly." Choji said with a grin.

"And just what is that supposed to mean, Choji?" the pinkette asked, narrowing her eyes at her friend.

"It means that your car is a piece of junk which you regularly complain about being worthless." He responded. "for crying out loud, you named it  _Vulture Bait_."

"Yes, well as you said, Choji, it is  _my_  car after all." She sniffed.

"You're hopeless." Shikamaru chuckled.

"Whatever." Sakura grumbled. "You were asking something about questing?"

"Oh right," the dark-haired boy said, his eyes lightening as he remembered. "Since you and the prince of darkness are off for a while, Choji and I wanted to know if you would want to join up with our party. We were planning on farming for that rare frost mount in the northern dungeon, maybe work on the new questline."

Sakura shook her head. "I already agreed to work the questline with Tannis, but I'd be more than happy to help you grind the dungeon a few times until you get the drop – I've already got it."

"What!" Choji exclaimed, just barely managing to keep from choking on his sandwich. "How? It's got like a point eight percent drop rate!"

An evil grin spread across the girl's lips. "I got it on the second run through the dungeon."

"Unfair." Moaned Shikamaru. "That's so unfair."

* * *

It's days like today that make him wish he had the nerve to ask Seraphina for her number. But that was reaching a little too far outside of their in-game universe. It was one thing to passingly mention family, or even admit that his was moving, but phone numbers? Real names? There was a line there that just wasn't crossed.

But still, it would have been nice being able to find solace in one of the few people he actually counted as a friend. She would have understood why he physically winced when his father all but threw the box containing his computer tower into the back of the moving van. She also would have been a welcome distraction from the chatter between his siblings as he sat in the back seat of the car following behind the moving van their father was driving.

He would likely never admit it to her, but she was the reason it had taken him so long to pack up his room. The night before, he'd been sitting on the edge of his mattress with his computer screen, keyboard, and mouse sitting on top of the boxes containing everything from his bookshelves. He knew that once the actual moving started, he wouldn't be able to log in again until everything was unboxed and in order. And it would be that long until he got to talk to someone who wasn't part of the family who were doing very well at forgetting he was even there in the car with them.

Not that any of that mattered to him at the moment anyway. His thoughts were a little more preoccupied with worrying about what he'd need to fix on his computer once he salvaged it from the moving van. There was no way that the styrofoam had kept the weight of the impact with the floor of the moving van from damaging  _something_ after his brother had so carelessly thrown it in. Hopefully it wasn't anything that he'd need to buy parts for, but he thought that was asking just a little too much from the universe.

With a sigh, he reached into the backpack that was crowding his leg space in the already cramped vehicle and pulled out the book he'd been reading. It was something one of their guildmates had suggested. A modern wizard living in Chicago solving crimes. It sounded absurd when Volkine had recommended it to him, but as it turned out it was pretty good. Good enough anyway that he let it distract him from the remainder of the car ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pronunciation
> 
> Seraphina – Sarah-FEE-nah
> 
> Tannis – TAN-iss
> 
> Volkine – Vole-kine
> 
> INDEX -organized in order of appearance
> 
> Guildmate/Guild – A guild is a group of players of five or more, usually averaging around the neighborhood of several hundred, that often work together and share resources. Some games have guild achievements that unlock certain in-game benefits for the members of said guild. Guilds will often have set schedules for when they will be going into a dungeon or raid, open and dependent upon how many players volunteer for the mission. Some guilds have standards of behavior or playing requirements for members – anything from maintaining a PG rating in the guild chat, to being required to participate in scheduled guild missions. Typically, there is a chain of command within the guild with a 'Guild master' at the top followed by lieutenants or generals and so on and so forth. The complexity of this chain of command is normally dependent upon the size of the guild. A player can be in a guild, but also in a party with other players at the same time.
> 
> Dungeons – (Sorry, realized I forgot this one in the last chapter) A dungeon is a scenario where players (Usually five or fewer) travel along a set path - often in an underground setting – fighting monsters and occasionally solving problems or avoiding traps along their way. There is always a Boss Monster at the end of the dungeon, but sometimes there will be what's called a mid-boss or a mini-boss which is usually about the halfway point and about half as challenging as the final boss. Most often, there is a reward for completing the dungeon, or a rare item dropped from the boss.
> 
> Raid/Raiding – So the simple explanation is that it's a really big, but more difficult dungeon that's intended to be played by groups of about twenty or more. And because it's got so many players in it, the 'path' you take in the raid is usually simplified.
> 
> Dungeon Crawling – This is when a player goes on an extended binge of playing only dungeons. Often, they are either passing time, level grinding, or farming for items. There are types of games where this is all you do and they are aptly referred to in the game community as 'Dungeon Crawler games'.
> 
> AFK – Away From Keyboard. A simple way for gamers to state that they are unavailable for the moment – be it for a few minutes while still logged into a game, or a few days as they are offline completely.
> 
> Grinding – Dungeon grinding, level grinding, achievement grinding, they all mean basically the same thing. Doing the same thing over and over again in an attempt to complete or gain something such as experience points or items.
> 
> Farming – This is when a player is going through a dungeon or area, or killing specific types of monsters in search of a specific item.
> 
> Item Drop/Drop rate – All monsters drop items. Some items drop from specific monsters or monster types, and many have different percent chance of dropping. This is called a drop rate - the lower the chance for it to drop, the rarer the item. The rarer the item, the better it is or the more it will sell for. Some items only drop from Boss Monsters, and some have as little a chance to drop as .01%. These ultra-rare items are typically what drives players to go through the same dungeons over and over and over again, 'farming' for that one item.
> 
> Mount – A mount is an in-game way of travel that is faster than walking/running. It can be anything from a simple horse, to a motorcycle, to a flying chameleon. (I'm not kidding, look up World of Warcraft 'Enchanted Fae Dragon' and tell me that's not just a chameleon with wings) Many of the more uncommon or just outright cooler looking mounts are dropped like items, and are extremely rare or hard to get. Some are rewards for quests or achievements.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The book Tannis was reading, for those who didn't pick up on it is called the Dresden Files series. My all time favorite. It's a beautifully written Urban fantasty that's told over the course of more than fifteen books. It's the love child of hard-boiled detective novels, Supernatural, and Harry Potter. It is worth reading. The first book is called Storm Front.

It's been more than a week since she's heard from him. It shouldn't bother her as much as it does. She knows that he's got more on his plate than she does, and that the idea of him rushing back to his computer to hang out with her is absolutely self-involved and completely insane. But it doesn't stop her from checking their online chat the second she gets back onto her computer after school. And it also doesn't stop her from deflating a little when she sees that it's still without any new messages. Moreover, it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that she logged into a single player rpg that afternoon instead of their usual mmo. No, that was because Choji had to help his dad with something that afternoon, Shikamaru was at work, Ino was on a date, and Naruto was still at school for his club meeting. Nothing to do with Tannis. Nope.

Except that it had everything to do with Tannis.

Sakura missed her friend, and she was every bit a creature of habit. Every other day during the week, they would log on together after they got home from school. And wherever it was he lived, he was always there half an hour earlier than she was. But who knew what the schedule would change to, now that he'd moved. Had he changed time zones? What if he was so far displaced that it was night time for him already? Or absurdly early in the morning? Those thoughts were what had her acting obsessive-compulsive about checking the chat room every day. But that didn't change the fact that none of that should have bothered her  _this much_. It was almost as frustrating as it was worrying.

Eventually, after about an hour of sitting in front of her desktop, Sakura logged off with a huff of annoyance and a slightly puckered frown. Stripping out of her t-shirt and jeans, she began the process of changing into her mismatched workout cloths – a pair of black athletic shorts and a beaten-up tank top that had 'Installing muscles, please wait' along with a loading bar across the front. The shirt had been a gift from Naruto the previous Christmas; and while she'd yelled and accused him of calling her fat, she'd worn it almost every time she went for a run or went with him to the gym. Which, to be fair, wasn't as often as she would like. Sakura ate well, and she went on a run at least once a week, but she certainly still had a little of what Choji referred to as 'gamer pudge'. (Of which, Choji had quite a lot. Point it out at your own risk.)

She passed Naruto on the stairs on her way outside, almost bumping straight into him as she was distracted by detangling her headphones.

"Hey!" the blond said brightly.

Sakura frowned, a little puzzled to see him home already. "Hey, did the meeting get canceled?"

He shook his head. "Nah, it was just short. Hype for the upcoming tournament, and a reminder to keep to our schedules. Lee says hi by the way."

"Ugh." The pinkette groaned. Naruto just snickered at her.

"So, what's with the getup? You heading to the gym without me?" he asked, still grinning in amusement.

She shook her head. "Just a run, I'm a little wound up so I thought it was as good a time as any to stretch my legs."

"You're going to waste away behind the computer one day." He said with a frown. "And if you want to wait on me to change, we can go to the gym together. I promise not to spar with Kiba and Neji the whole time."

"First of all, you sound like mom about my computer," She said dryly, giving him a flat look. "Second, I'll pass. I'll be back in probably an hour or so. Maybe we can go on Saturday?"

"Saturday works." Naruto said. "Have fun!"

"Ah yes, fun." Sakura drawled, scooting past him on the stairwell. Once outside, she finished detangling her headphones and strapped her phone to her arm before taking off down the street at an easy pace. Naruto always complained about how slow of a runner she was, but he also didn't seem to grasp the concept that not everything was a race. For the purpose of losing weight or even just keeping yourself a little healthier, all you needed was to up your heart rate. No need to behave as though you were always training for a marathon. Truthfully, she blamed Rock Lee for her brother's attitude towards exercise.

* * *

The only thing he liked about the new house – or rather, the only thing that he would admit to liking – was the fact that his bedroom window let him climb up onto the roof. He'd seen it done before, and had always been curious about it, so he had immediately taken advantage of it. It was a strange feeling sitting up there. A little bit reckless, a little bit free. Seraphina would have teased him for sounding maudlin.

That had been happening quite a lot, the spunky cleric popping into his head at random intervals. As he laid on his back watching the clouds, he wondered why that was. He was inclined to chalk it up to spending too much time talking to only his family, which was infrequent as it was, but he really couldn't come up with a solid reason.

He had met her during a raid around a year and a half ago. It had been during the previous expansion of their game, when the raids weren't yet qued, and so players were a lot more structured in who and how before going in. She had been 'assigned' to healing the group of dps players he'd been a part of. But then one of the main tanks had died – his reselectable avatar sitting in a corner of the final boss room that you had to get past the boss to get to. The ass had been pushing too far ahead and had died as a result. After that, Seraphina had switched specs and charged in as a replacement tank. Their group had been more or less fine, and it had made sense. Unfortunately, to many other players that didn't matter. Even though the boss was defeated, and even though she had made an excellent decision in switching, a lot of players had jumped on her. They had been toxic enough to her that he, as Tannis, had felt compelled to stand up for her – not that she'd needed him to. She was a fire-breathing dragon when she needed to be. But afterwards, she's sent Tannis a private IM thanking him for trying.

After that there wasn't a whole lot more to it. She'd kept pestering him to join up with her and their now mutual friend Volkine. Eventually she had started pestering him to join the guild they were in. They'd been playing together regularly ever since then.

So maybe that was why he missed her.

His thoughts were interrupted by a catcall.

Looking over, his non-existent eyebrows pulling together is disapproval, he saw his brother hanging out of his respective window with a grin on his face. Following the brunette's gaze, he was met by an arresting sight.

There was a girl, drenched in sweat from exercising, paused by their mailbox. Even at a distance, he could see her small chest heaving as she paused for breath, observing the moving van still parked in front of the house. She was petite, but not quite athletic. But most noticeably, and what had the gamer captivated, was her bright bubble-gum pink hair. So very like his favored cleric.

His brother yelled something at her that the younger sibling wouldn't dare repeat out loud, and the girl's head had snapped in their direction. Not wanting to be involved, he pointed at his brother with a frown. She had made a face akin to a snarl and flicked them both off before shoving a headphone back into her ear and picking back up again at a fast pace that let her past their yard and out of his line of sight.

He scowled. "Kankuro, do you really have to be disgusting to every woman you encounter?"

The brunette's head snapped around in surprise, his eyes narrowing when they landed on his younger sibling. "I don't know, Gaara, do  _you_  have to be such a freak all the time? What the hell are you doing on the roof?"

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "Minding my own business instead of harassing strangers."

"Oh fuck you." Kankuro growled. "Don't be such a self-righteous prick."

With that, he vanished back inside his window. The red-haired youth sighed and laid on his back. Just another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> INDEX – Organized in order of appearance in the story
> 
> Single Player/Multi Player – A single player game is where the player is the only one interacting with a game, where a multi-player has several different players playing together in the same game and interacting with each other.
> 
> RPG – Roll Playing Games are where the player is playing as a character within a story, or acting as a character within a world, taking on a role or persona to fit the theme. Examples being games like Legend of Zelda, or any of the Assassin's Creed Games. (Or any of the ninja storm games for that matter)
> 
> MMO / MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Game. This is a game spread across multiple servers, often internationally, where thousands of players all exist in the same game. This is the type of game that Sakura, Gaara, Shikamaru, and Choji play. The best real-world example is probably World of Warcraft. (Hi, excuse me, Blizzard Entertainment fangirl here.(Authors note within an authors note within an authors note, how meta is that? – Blizzard Entertainment is the owner and proprieter of games like Wolrd of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Starcraft, Hearthstone, and others.))


	4. Chapter 4

_Pling!_

Sakura gave a start, not expecting the notification chime in the least. It was past eleven, and she was up working on homework for her AP biology class. Stifling a yawn, she clicked on the little banner at the top corner of her screen, pulling up the chat application she and her friends used. She was further surprised to see the screen name that was contacting her.

 **WindDemon43** "Are you still up?"

A smile made its way onto the pinkette's face as she picked up her headset and slipped it on over her ears, clicking the button to begin a voice call with her friend. The call was picked up almost immediately, and she heard shuffling on his end of the mic for a moment after. She chuckled.

"Does that answer your question?"

"You know, oddly enough it does." He responded flatly, Tannis's soft baritone filling her ears for the first time in more than two weeks.

"Where the hell have you been!" Sakura asked hotly. "Did you move to the other end of the planet or something?"

"Oh, did someone miss me?" He teased her, a musical note finding its way into the undercurrent of his voice.

"Not in the least." The healer sniffed. "Volkine, Shibuka and I have been questing without you – in other games even."

"I will attempt to recover my ego." Tannis said solemnly. "Anyway, I was waiting on parts for my computer. The tower got damaged in the moving van, the daughterboard got cracked and one of the fans was damaged. Had to use my phone to find the nearest computer shop, and it took a few days for the right components to come in. I upgraded my graphics card as well."

"Yikes, bet your wallet enjoyed that." Sakura said, cringing as she mentally tallied up the average cost for parts. "How the heck did it get damaged like that?"

"Not important. Like I said it happened in the moving van." There was something in his voice that made her want to press on the issue but she decided against it. "Anyway, I just finished hooking everything up and I wanted to see if you were up for starting on the questline we talked about. Unless you and the dynamic duo have already completed it?"

"Hardly." She snorted. "I told them I'd already promised to work it with you. Mostly we went dungeon grinding – Volkine is farming for the frost mount you and I got a few months ago."

Tannis chuckled. "Did you tell him how long it took us to find it?"

"Yes, he complained about it being unfair."

"What a drag?"

Sakura let out another snort, this one more from repressed laughter. "How did you guess?"

"It's Volkine."

"Fair point." She allowed, smiling again. "Unfortunately, I can't game tonight. I've got to work on an essay for my bio class. So, unless you know anything about the recessive genes of pea plants…"

"Pass." He said distastefully. "I don't want to have to think about school right now. I start back on Monday at a whole new school."

"You're a junior, right?" she asked, momentarily ignoring that weird feeling she got when they were just starting to teeter on the line of what was too far outside of their anonymous online friendship.

"Yeah." He sighed. "I guess I should feel grateful I'm not in my siblings' shoes. They're both halfway through their senior year."

"Ouch." Sakura hissed. "Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow then, Tannis. I'll let Volkine and Shibuka know to rendezvous with someone else for a while. Unless you want to hang out with them?"

"Ack, why not?" he grumbled. "They haven't started the questline either, right?"

"Not at all."

"I'll join up with the three of you then, rather than peel off their healer."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Sakura asked, her tone honeyed. "I'm the party leader on this one."

"I hate you." He muttered, which made her laugh a little louder than she should have at what was now eleven thirty-five at night.

"See you tomorrow then." She chirped.

"Yeah, yeah." And with that the dot beside his name changed colors to indicate that he had left the chat, though his status did change to show that he'd logged into one of the solo games he had. Sakura couldn't help but smirk when she noticed it was one of the games she'd gotten him to try. It was all assassinations and stealth and ninja moves – and was more than a little addictive.

Shaking her head at herself and exiting out of the chat screen Sakura resumed her essay, idly wondering if Tannis actually  _did_  know anything about pea plants.

* * *

"So, what's this questline supposed to be about again?" queried a rather robust barbarian as he leaned over Seraphina's shoulder in a futile attempt to look at the scroll in her hands.

"Well, Shibuka, maybe if you would let her finish reading it…" Drawled the party's wizard as he sat flicking through a spell book he'd acquired from his last quest.

"Or maybe, Volkine, if you would both shut up, I could finish reading it sooner." Growled the pink-haired cleric, causing the fighter beside her to snicker quietly, making his mic sound flutter. She pointedly ignored him as she frowned down at the scroll. Finally, she rolled it up and slipped it into a storage bag on her hip before pulling up a menu to share the quest with the party. "From what I was hearing on the game forum yesterday, it's supposed to be a chain of events that leads us to exploring the edges of this map until we find the entrance to the new expansion area. For now, we're looking for a missing dwarven miner somewhere in the southeast quarter of Deeprun Hills."

"How very exciting." Volkine drawled without looking up from the book in his hands.

"I wouldn't start that – remember the last time you complained about a quest being boring?" Sera teased.

Tannis snorted. "I do. We ended up falling into a maze of lava tubes we had to escape before the volcano erupted."

"That never happened." He said, ignoring as even Shibuka chuckled in dissent of his statement.

"Are you going to sit there all day or what, Vol?" Sera asked, hands on her hips. "What're you doing anyway?"

In response, the wizard held up the spell book. As he did, the rest of his party could more easily see the downloading icon floating above its open pages. "Attuning to the book. The inner text is a bunch of elemental unison theory – if I keep it in my off-hand then the air buff I get from it will augment my fire magic by making them more explosive. And if I need to switch to my water magic spec, it'll turn my spells into frost magic."

"Dude that is sick." The pinkette exclaimed. "What quest did you get that off of?"

"Class exclusive quest for wizards – it was last patch's endgame for us but I didn't get around to finishing it until last week." Volkine responded with a shrug.

"Right, I thought I remembered hearing about that." Tannis said thoughtfully. "I didn't pay much attention since I don't play wiz."

"I think I knew that, I just didn't realize Volkine was  _that_ lazy that he hadn't done the quest line yet." Snickered the cleric. "I don't have a leveled wizard to make me care about their class artifacts."

"No, you're too busy beating the shit out of people with your Valhalla warhammer." Shibuka chuckled.

"Hey!" she protested, spinning the staff in her hand. "My Crystal Stave and I take offence to that."

"I'm sure that you do." Drawled Tannis, walking away from the group and heading towards the road. "Are we going to begin the quest or not?"

"Can you wait like ten more minutes?" Volkine asked, looking apologetic. "I thought this would finish before you guys got here."

"That's fine." Sera allowed before turning to Tannis's slightly soured face. "Don't make that face – you were complaining about being hungry anyway. Go get something to eat if you're really so impatient."

"Fine, guard my Avatar?" he asked, returning to where the other three adventurers stood. When Sera nodded he sat down beside Volkine's stump and an icon appeared above his head to show that he had switched over to the AFK game feature.

"What the hell is his problem?" grunted Volkine a few seconds later, glaring a bit at the fighter.

"Leave him be." Sera said quietly, as though worried he might hear her. "He messaged me on the chat server earlier today. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to join up today."

Shibuka made a face. "His family again?"

"Best that I could figure." She confirmed.

The three active players fell silent, no one quite sure to say. It was a consistent hiccup in their friendship with the stalwart fighter. No matter the games they migrated to, no matter the length of time they had known him. Over the years they'd picked up on bits and pieces of his life IRL, but it wasn't really ever talked about with any amount of true personal depth. And they had their concerns, but no one was sure how to address it. It was a rift that was deepened by the clear fact that Volkine, Shibuka, and Seraphina were all friends IRL; it was something that clearly made Tannis uncomfortable, and one of the reasons he didn't usually care for being in a party with all three of them. Seraphina was long since convinced that if she let it happen, Tannis would have faded out of their lives a long time ago, and that Volkine and Shibuka would have let it happen without even noticing.

"What did I miss?" The sudden return of their fighter's voice, muffled though it was by food, startled all of them after several minutes of silence. Volkine nearly dropped his book, and there was a crash from Sera's end of the mic connection. This collection of reactions earned snickering. "Everything alright there?"

"Shut up." Snapped the cleric. "Volkine are you done or what?"

He snapped the book shut and stood from his seat. "Good to go."

"Sweet, lets head out." Sera confirmed, reaching into a pocket of her robe to pull out a slim obsidian whistle inlaid with golden filigree. Her companions had also busied themselves with retrieving similar objects – each of a different design. Volkine scowled venomously at Tannis when the latter pulled out an intricate whistle made with silver wrought around a carved piece of light blue crystal that smoked like a piece of dry ice.

"Is that wholly necessary?" He groused petulantly.

"One hundred percent." Confirmed Tannis.

"What a drag."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So no index this time, I don't think I've put in any terms I haven't already explained. But I did want to explain the last paragraph – the whistles I used to indicate the character's in-game mounts. It does nothing for the story except drag it out for a longer word count if I took the time to type out the summoning and descriptions of each mount for no story building reason. Often in games the 'drop' for a mount or the purchasable item is represented by a whistle or a small icon. The idea here is that the characters received the mounts by the acquisition of a summoning whistle that is stylized to match the mount.


	5. Chapter 5

She was there again - that girl with the pink hair.

She would have stood out even in a crowd, with those locks of hers – so naturally Gaara's eyes had landed squarely on her person as the administrator had escorted him into the classroom. Somehow though, even when the teacher had called for attention to introduce the new student, she had scarcely looked up from her conversation with the girl beside her. When she had looked, there had been a distasteful wrinkling of her nose before she looked away again. This shouldn't have bothered him, but it did. Any idle thoughts that she might have been like Seraphina were thrown away into a mental trashcan. As he made his way to the seat the teacher had indicated, he berated himself for even having a thought so foolish.

He was shaken from his thoughts when a boisterous voice sounded next to him as he sat down.

"Hey! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" the blond at the desk beside him all but shouted, making Gaara wince at the chosen decibel.

"Gaara." The red-head responded, frowning at the other boy and quickly tuning him out as he began to ramble on about welcoming Gaara to the school.

School. Gaara Sabaku  _hated_  school. It wasn't that he had anything against learning – on the contrary he quite enjoyed it – but the political games the students played as well as the inevitable drama that took place was beyond his comprehension. And that was to say nothing of the discomfort Gaara felt as he was thrust into new situations with a crowd full of people he didn't know. He would have been more than happy to take an equivalency or take classes online and avoid the inevitable altogether. But his father wouldn't hear anything of it even though he was the reason the Sabaku family moved around so often – by the time his youngest would sink in and become comfortable somewhere he would uproot them once more. So here Gaara sat, listening to the inane babble of a stranger who Gaara likely wouldn't be around long enough to make a solid friend of.

For probably the hundredth time in the last two weeks, Gaara wished he had the nerve to ask Sera for her number.

* * *

"Poor Naruto." Ino snickered.

Sakura turned in her seat to follow her friend's gaze, smiling sympathetically as she saw her foster brother enthusiastically trying to draw the new kid into a conversation. It didn't seem to be having any amount of success; certainly not once the new boy pulled a pair of headphones over his ears, the headband of the device making his rust colored locks stick out at odd angles.

"He means well?" she offered a bit half-heartedly. "But I doubt that ship will sail very far."

"No kidding, I mean  _look_  at him." Ino snickered. Sakura frowned at Ino's words, but she couldn't help but agree as she really took in the sight of the new kid. It was the same impression that her first glance had brought. Black and red hoodie with some splattered band logo on the front, dark jeans with chains, leather cuffs on his wrists and some kind of tattoo peeking out from under his bunched-up sleeves. He looked like the antithesis of Naruto and his own brightly colored ensemble. Not that it kept him from trying anyway.

But the closer inspection did deepen her frown. He almost looked familiar… not a second later it dawned on her why that was. It made perfect sense too – she had been out for a run and had even seen the moving van. He had been the boy sitting on the roof of the house when that pervert had yelled at her. She relayed the memory to Ino.

"God, boys are such pigs." She snarled. "Hopefully that little freak won't start any fuss like that."

"Ino you don't know him." Sakura reasoned. "Don't be so mean. You can't pick your family, for all you know he's perfectly nice."

"How nice can he be if he's already giving people the cold shoulder?" the blond sniffed. Sakura wanted to argue, but once Ino had formed an opinion it would take empirical evidence to change it back. And where was the point in defending a stranger who probably wouldn't have appreciated it anyway? She didn't have the chance anyways as the bell then rang and the teacher called them to attention.

The new kid didn't even cross her mind again until that afternoon during lunch.

Because he was at their table. And Sakura was awkward.

She had brought her lunch and was therefore the first to discover the invader, and she had stood there chewing her lip for several beats until Shikamaru had come up behind her and sighed at the dilemma she had found herself in. Was she enough of a bitch to try and kick him out? Was she gregarious enough to go and introduce herself and sit with him? No. she was awkward and didn't know where she should now eat her lunch. Shikamaru had arrived laughing, taking no time to realize what was happening.

"You know, you could take this as an opportunity to act like a normal human being." He teased. "Where's the harm in making new friends?"

"There's the harm." The pinkette frowned, pointing at the pair of boys walking to the table in question. One was tall with jet black hair and an arrogant swagger to his step, wearing a football jersey emblazoned with the name 'Uchiha'. The other boy was only a little shorter than him with shoulder length white hair and a smile that Sakura knew from experience promised nothing friendly. "Out to set the status quo I imagine."

"They sure don't waste any time, do they?" her dark-haired friend grunted. "Poor bastard."

"Let's sit with Hinata today." Sakura suggested, feeling anxiety bubble up in her throat. The last thing she wanted today was a run in with Sasuke.

"Good idea – Hey Choji!" he called, making the larger boy look up from his spot in line. "We're sitting with Hinata!"

He threw a thumbs up at the pair and Sakura send one more glance at their regular table before making her way over to where she knew the Hyuga girl typically sat with her cousin. What she was not expecting to see was the red-headed newcomer to be ignoring whatever condescending drivel Sasuke was likely spouting in favor of staring right at her. Uncomfortable with the scrutiny, she blushed and gave a half-hearted smile that was gone unseen when he looked away once he realized he'd been caught.

_What a weird guy_. She thought.

"You know he rides our bus, right?"

"Huh?" Sakura whipped her head around to look back at Shikamaru.

"I said he rides our bus – Choji saw him get on this morning." He repeated. "Or,  _Choji's_  bus, rather; since neither of us ride it anymore."

"His house is in the opposite direction of the school from my house." She sniffed. "If Cho would get his happy ass up early enough in the morning he could easily walk to my house and I'd be more than willing to drive him. He has zero reason to complain."

"Yeah yeah."

* * *

When the final bell rang, Gaara didn't think he'd ever stood up so quickly in his life. Bag slung over his shoulder and headphones back over his ears, he had actually knocked into someone in his haste to get out of the room before the hallways were completely flooded. He muttered an apology to the heavier boy he'd bumped but didn't stop.

This was hands-down the biggest school he'd ever attended, and the press of the students had him on edge the entire day. Not to mention the disaster that lunch had been. As if he didn't feel vulnerable enough sitting at an empty table in the middle of an overcrowded room, a pair of jocks who hadn't even bothered to give their names had swooped down like vultures seeking carrion. They reminded him of the kind of gamers that Sera could usually be found arguing with online. It was a lot less entertaining to be the target, and even more so when it was in person. The benefit of a computer was that you did in fact have the option of turning it off altogether – not that you couldn't do that with life as the dark corner of his mind seemed determined to point out.

They had at first asked him about his interest in the sports program, and it had then turned into probing about why he had moved, and then devolved into them apparently determining that he wasn't worth their time. Not worth anything really, as they had assured him. Apparently just because one was not athletically inclined or in possession of a fascinating backstory, that person was at the bottom of whatever messed up hierarchy this school had.

About the only other thing worthy of note that had happened today was the distinct possibility that he had begun to hallucinate. Shortly after the pair of testosterone filled jackasses had arrived at his lunch table, he could have sworn he heard Volkine's voice briefly rise above the other sounds of the cafeteria. And when he looked up at the general direction of what had  _surely_  been wishful thinking, he saw that girl again. Like he said – wishful thinking. That girl was messing with his head just by  _existing_  near him; as if he didn't have enough problems.


	6. Chapter 6

"What do you mean you're looking for a job?"

"What the hell does it sound like, Shibuka?"

"But you're a high school student! Doesn't your dad want you stu- "

"GUYS!" Seraphina's voice cut sharply through the voice chat. "Can we discuss this  _later_ , maybe? Shi, if you lose much more aggro it's going to charge the back towards me and Volkine!"

"Sorry!" he cried, keys clacking frantically as he used several of his avatar's skills at once.

The monster roared in anger as it was taunted by the barbarian, distracting it long enough for Tannis to swing his broadsword up under one of its legs and capture a critical hit. It moved to retaliate but was simultaneously slowed and distracted as it was taunted again by Shibuka's stomp ability and hit with an ice spell by Volkine that cut its movement speed.

"It's almost down!" Called Tannis as he unleashed a flurry of blows against the creature's hide.

Seraphina grinned confidently even as she stood at the back and fired off an AOE leech spell at the ground shared by the two melee fighters and the monster itself. She watched with a moderate amount of relief as it drew life energy out of the enemy's form to replenish her party's health pool. A few heartbeats later and the creature was felled, its corpse falling to the ground as the party whooped in triumph.

"It dropped some pretty good items." Tannis commented as he crouched to access the menu that had appeared over the fallen enemy. "Volkine you said that you were looking for malachite, right?"

"Malachite and Amber, yeah." He affirmed, walking over to where the fighter and barbarian stood. "You guys mind if I snag that?"

"Go for it man." Sera chuckled. There was a loud series of popping sounds that crackled over the mic and the party all made various sounds of disgust and annoyance. The cleric groaned. "Shibuka, if you're going to do that, we've asked that you do it  _away_  from your headset."

"Sorry, my hand got stiff." He said. "You know, I'm slowly beginning to wonder if we'll need another party member for the end of this quest chain. We keep ending up in fights were if we don't pay attention every single second, we end up dead. The forum said it ends in a new dungeon with two mid-level bosses and a final boss."

"We were doing just fine until you started gossiping with Tannis." Volkine pointed out, tucking away the green crystal their fighter handed to him. "You guys are the ones who need to keep aggro focused on you. If you don't then it starts going after Sera."

"Excuse me?" The cleric chuckled. "Healers are a target, sure, but  _you_  are the one who still doesn't have a handle on your boosted damage output. You keep using spells that deal more damage than your used to and it's making their jobs harder, even if it  _is_  killing the monsters faster."

"She's got a point you know." Agreed Tannis. "If we went into a dungeon right now, you'd end up drawing the boss if you're not careful. You keep spamming the strongest spells you have."

"Ok, ok, lay off." The wizard lamented. "I haven't had the time to really get used to it ok? I've had a bunch of crap to work on! And ever since I got that new artifact book it's thrown my spell balance off."

"Guys relax." Shibuka argued. "Look, why don't we just cool it for a day or two? Tannis says he's going on hiatus anyway, so why don't we take that time to just tool around and let Vol relearn his kit?"

"I mean that's fine by me." Sera offered.

"Troublesome assholes." Grumbled the wizard. "It's not my fault you know."

"You're the one who waited to get your artifact." Shibuka pointed out. "I told you when I got my shoulder guards that there was a steep learning curve to the skill buff."

"While you ladies hash that one out, I've got to get going – my brother is yelling at me from downstairs." Sera said with a strain in her voice that likely meant she was stretching. "I'll be back online later though – Tannis are you up for some Dota later?"

"Sure."

"Alright then, I'll send you an IM when I'm getting on."

"Later."

With a small smile, the pink haired young woman logged off of the game and made sure her mic had disconnected before she gave a response to the blond who was likely just standing at the bottom of the stairs like an idiot. "WHAT?"

There was a muffled response that made her sigh before actually getting up and making the short journey from her computer desk to the top of the stairs to find that, surprise, there he was like she knew he'd be. "What is it?"

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Hinata wanted me to ask you if you wanted to hang out with her and Ino for a movie night."

"Oh, you're going to release her to us for an evening, huh?" Sakura teased him as she descended to the first floor. "Ask her when and I'll make time – the boys can fend for themselves for an evening."

Naruto grinned and pressed his phone against his ear before starting to yammer away, his eyes bright and his smile broad. He had taken his sister's advice to heart and had asked the shy Hyuga out about a week or so ago, and had been notably more jovial since. He was home a little less, on the phone a little more, but he had been on cloud nine and it made Sakura shake her head at him for acting like a lovestruck puppy. But she supposed it was good to see him interested in something that wasn't sports or martial arts. Hinata had even been encouraging him into studying with her after school once he had finished with the martial arts club. And Naruto wasn't the only one that had been benefitting – Sakura had never seen her quietest friend quite so open in all the time they'd known each other.

It was these thoughts that brought a smile to the pinkette's face as she entered the kitchen, intent on scavenging leftovers from the fridge. She was still rummaging when Naruto came in behind her.

"She said that they were thinking of tomorrow night, if that's good with you." He said.

"I'll make it my business to be there." She said off handedly. "Hey did you eat the last of the katsudon mom made?"

"You mean the 'Cat's Doom'?" he snickered back at her. "No that was dad who ate that, but I think there's some stuff to make nigiri if you're hungry."

"Too much effort too late at night." She said. "And I'm sorry I ever showed you that anime – that line is literally all you retained despite every other ounce of gold in it."

"It wasn't  _that_  great."

"Well I liked it, it was funny." She sniffed. "You wanna order a pizza or something? Mom and Dad are still out right?"

"Yeah, they said they'd be back late – want me to come and get you when the food gets here?" he offered.

"Yes please." She smiled at him. "The usual?"

"Yeah I know, four cheese and double olives." He made a face. "I will never understand your taste in pizza."

"Well  _I_  will never understand how you can eat so much ramen." Sakura threw back at him as she closed the fridge and made her way back towards the stairs. He yelled after her some nonsense about ramen being the world's greatest food, but she did little more than shake her head.

Back upstairs, she slid smoothly back into her computer chair and slipped her headphones over her ears. A short IM to Tannis and a heartbeat later, she was answering a voice call.

"That was fast." He drawled.

Sakura shrugged, not that he could see that. "He was playing messenger between me and his girlfriend. I was gonna get some food too, but the leftovers are gone so he's off to order us a pizza."

"What, was his girlfriend pissed at you or something?" he asked, seeming unsure of how to respond.

The pink haired girl laughed. "As if. She was my friend first anyway – no, she wanted to set up a girls' night with me and one of our other friends. She was probably already on the phone with the Dobe when it came up."

"You go on girls' nights?" Tannis asked, sounding bemused. "What, is that like where you talk about boys and have dramatic pillow fights?"

"Yes, Tannis, we also wear skimpy pajamas and braid each other's hair." She said dryly. "What the hell do you take me for you idiot? No. We get together with takeout and movies – something you clearly watch too much of."

"Ok, wow, chill out." He chuckled. "I was teasing you."

"Mmhm, sure you were." She said, trying to keep the smile out of her voice. "Dota?"

"Sure."

"Fair warning, I'm leaving you once pizza gets here." She admitted as she launched the game. Tannis gave a grunt in response and there were several minutes of silence before either of them spoke. "Hey, can I ask something?"

"You just did." Tannis drawled.

"Don't be a smart ass." Sakura growled. "I wanted to ask before, why  _are_  you getting a job?"

"We're in a new town again, and my siblings have yet to find something to occupy themselves with, so they're home a lot. Besides, I'd like to have something set aside for whenever I can move the hell out of here after school." Tannis's voice was bitter and it hurt Sakura's heart. She felt like they were beginning to press the boundaries again, but she ignored it in favor of digging a little more.

"Are they really so bad?"

There was a pause before he responded, his voice careful. "Why are you asking?"

Sakura felt her cheeks heat up, but she couldn't well back down now that she'd said something. Resolute, she answered with much more confidence than she felt. "Because you're my friend. And sometimes your snide comments about your family make me worry about you."

Tannis was quiet for a long time after that, even up through character selection and the start of their match. "You don't need to worry, Seraphina. I'm fine."

Frowning, but pushing it aside, she chose to accept his answer. Instead she focused back on the game. "Their team is pushing mid."

"On it."

* * *

The next day was Saturday. When Gaara woke that morning, it was with a heavy sigh of relief that he didn't have to leg it out to the bus stop to wait on the yellow sardine can to take him into the most oppressive space he could imagine. Konoha high school was massive, loud, dramatic, and overall not a place he enjoyed being. He didn't even bother using the locker he was provided with, simply because it meant standing in a crowded hallway for longer than was strictly necessary. He had yet to walk to a class where he didn't end up bumping into people or brushing uncomfortably close to someone.

To make matters worse, his prescription had run out on his anxiety medication. Getting a refill would require going to see  _another_  new doctor. When he had informed his father of this news, the response he had received was one of annoyance and disinterest which had translated into exactly what it had the last several times – he was to figure it out for himself and Temari would drive him to wherever he needed to go. How dare he ask his majesty to care. It was a wonder that he tried anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> INDEX – Organized by order of appearance in the story
> 
> Taunt – A taunt ability is a skill that allows a player to temporarily cause a spike in the threat they generate to monsters, thus attracting their attention away from other players.
> 
> AOE – Area of Effect abilities are usually spells, though sometimes they are physical abilities, that a player can cast on a directed area. This can either be at a range, or the immediate circumference around the caster. These types of abilities effect only the players, allies, and enemies that are within the border of the spell.
> 
> Threat – Ok, so this term doesn't actually appear in the chapter, but explaining this mechanic would probably be appropriate. Each player generates different levels of threat to monsters and enemies, some more than others. Tanks generate the most consistently high amount of it, which is why they can keep the attention of enemies. That said, other players can 'distract' the monsters away from their tanks by casting powerful spells or executing strong or special attacks. If they do this frequently enough, they can actually make the jobs of both the tank and the healer more difficult. The reason for this is because it makes the tank have to work harder to keep a monsters attention, and the healer now has to take their focus off the tank because usually the non-tank player usually has a smaller amount of health, and needs more attention to keep them from dying; all the while, they also have to keep an eye on the actual tank because they need to stay alive to protect the rest of the party. HOWEVER, if the tank isn't doing a good enough job keeping the attention of an enemy, the player they often will go after instead is the healer. This is a simple logical step in the chain of threat assessment – if there is no healer, then the rest of the party will be easier to take down from lack of health regeneration and buffs. Wow that was a long explanation.
> 
> Draw/Pull – This is when a player actively begins to generate threat. When they aren't in fights a player generates a passive amount of threat, but the moment that they enter combat, the level changes to a higher amount. Think about it like the difference in seeing a gang member sitting on a street curb and seeing them in the middle of a fight. It's the same person both times, but you're a lot more aware of them in the second scenario.
> 
> Kit – The set of abilities a player has.
> 
> Buff/Boost – This is a positive effect on a skill, ability, or health pool. Sometimes it's a temporary castable ability, other times it's an effect of acquiring a new item.
> 
> D.O.T.A. – Copyright infringement, that's what it is. (On my part) Dota is an actual game. The acronym stands for Defender of the Ancients, and most often when people talk about it, they usually mean Dota 2, which is the second iteration of the same game. It's what's called a MOBA style game – multiplayer online battle arena. in which a player controls a single character in a team who compete versus another team of players. The objective is to destroy the opposing team's main structure with the assistance of periodically-spawned computer-controlled units that march forward along set paths. Player characters typically have various abilities and advantages that improve over the course of a game and that contribute to a team's overall strategy. MOBA games are a fusion of action games, role-playing games and real-time strategy games, in which players usually do not construct either buildings or units. ( Honest truth, I stole the MOBA definition off of Wikipedia because I kept rewriting my paraphrased version and it was just becoming increasingly less understandable)
> 
> Pushing – In PvP (Player vs Player) games, if there is an objective beyond just killing the other players (and a lot of times there is, it depends on the game you're playing) when players are working together to attack a single point it is known as 'Pushing'.
> 
> Top/Mid/Bottom – In games, typically a MOBA style, there are what are loosely considered as 'lanes'. They are dubbed as top, mid, and bottom, based on where they are depicted on the map.


	7. Chapter 7

The bell chimed as Sakura entered the little bookshop café that sat a comfortable two blocks outside of her neighborhood. As she did she took a deep breath through her nose, letting out a little sigh as she took in the scent of coffee and newly printed books. She liked it much better than the larger commercial store that was across town. It had been a while since she'd come here but when she did she always had the feeling of wishing that she visited more often, it felt like a place of peace.

"Sakura! Over here girl!" Well,  _most_  of the time it felt that way.

Ducking her head at the looks some of the nearby patrons gave her, the pinkette stalked over to the half of the store that was a café, and the table at which her rather loud friend sat. When she reached it, she shot a venomous glare at the platinum blond. "Ino, would it kill you to be a little more considerate?"

"What? It's a store, not a library." She snorted.

"But it's a  _bookstore_." Sakura emphasized. "It wouldn't kill you to dial it back a little. Anyway, why did you want to meet here?"

"Oh, I just didn't want to hang out at home – Dad has been hovering lately. He keeps nagging on me about my grades." Ino huffed.

"You could try to study just a little more." Her friend reasoned. "Smart as Shikamaru is, I'm sure he would help you with some of it."

"As if I needed that." The blond replied dryly. "It's bad enough that that little genius is practically family. The last thing I need is my dad directly comparing us."

"Suit yourself." Sakura said, feeling a little resigned. "Anyway, why are we here?"

"Brainstorming." Ino said, her mood shifting back into high gear again. "Hinata's coming too, we need to figure out what dresses we want for the spring fling."

"Don't you think it's pretty dumb that we have  _two_  spring dances?" Sakura asked, feeling herself sink into her chair.  _This_  is why she had come here? "Prom  _and_  the Fling? The underclassmen already had homecoming, they've been included enough."

"Hush." Ino chided, pulling out her sketch pad and making the pinkette roll her eyes. "It gives us more reason to dress up."

"Not me." The other girl said with a grimace. "The only date I've got for that night is with my computer rig."

"Sakura-"

"No."

"But-"

"I said no." Sakura snapped. "I am not going."

"Sakura you haven't been to a dance in ages." Ino prodded. "You can't let Sasuke ruin-"

"Ino, drop it." by now Sakura's voice was practically a snarl. "I have no desire to have this conversation with you. At all. I will help you and Hinata figure out what to wear, but that is the end of it."

Ino looked like she wanted to argue more, but they were interrupted by the tentative scraping of a chair against the floor which brought them to realize that Hinata had also joined them. The dark-haired girl was frowning uncertainly at them. "Is everything ok?"

Hinata was sweet, and Sakura adored that she seemed to make Naruto so happy, but she was not exactly her closest friend. So Sakura just smiled disarmingly at her. "Yeah, just arguing with Pig about your dresses for the dance. Somehow, I doubt you'd enjoy bring decked out in sequins and glitter."

Hinata giggled quietly. "Well then thank you."

From then it was all talk of colors, necklines, fabrics, and everything else that went into 'a fabulous gown'. All the while, Ino was sketching out rough ideas and dimensions. She was probably the best armature seamstress that Sakura had ever seen – there was hardly a piece of clothing that Ino owned that she did not make and design herself. Sometimes she ended up looking a little eclectic, but it always seemed to remain incredibly fashionable. She had been gifted her first sewing machine when she turned twelve and it had been all downhill since then.

After about an hour of this though, Sakura was feeling a little overly saturated and excused herself to the restroom. By which she actually meant that she was going to wander around the bookshelves and find something to read while Ino continued her design session. She felt like she was meant to be guilty about ditching her friends, and consoled herself by wandering through the 'craft books' section first, lingering there long enough to leaf through a volume on sewing techniques. After reading an entire page on the different types of gathers, she quietly made a gagging sound before putting it firmly back on the shelf and wandering over to where the fantasy section was.

She was looking through the sparse collection of graphic novels when she heard the heavy thump of a box hitting the nearby floor. Seeing motion in the aisle just past the shelf in front of her, Sakura peered nosily through the gaps above and between the comics. She was a little startled to see the same new kid from school stocking shelves in her favorite bookstore. Almost as startled as she was to realize he was not wearing his usual dark-colored apparel; instead, he was wearing a granola colored polo that somehow managed to make him look even paler than all that black did.

It was with a strange fascination that Sakura edged a few of the comics further apart to more properly spy on the boy. He looked different from the way he did in school – and it wasn't just the lack of dark colors or the headphones he always seemed to have around his neck. It was like his entire body language had shifted, all the rigidity he usually seemed to have had given way to a rather relaxed bearing. She wondered what the difference made.

Sakura almost jumped in fright when he turned around to face her, only to relax when she realized that not only would he have to look directly at her to catch her spying, and that that was entirely unlikely as he was leaning back against the shelf he was supposed to be stocking, examining the cover of the book he had been putting out. His expression was thoughtful as he read the synopsis before flipping it open to the first page. Sakura tried to read the title, but all she could make out around his hand was a strange cover art that looked like a biological diagram of a  _dragon_  of all things. So maybe he was a fantasy reader? It was an odd thing to learn about someone whose name you couldn't even properly remember. Naruto knew what it was, she was sure, but Sakura hadn't really given the boy much thought beyond fleeting moments of happenstance.

She was in the midst of warring with her self-consciousness over if she should walk into the next aisle and introduce herself when her phone scared the pink out of her hair. Jumping in surprise and letting out a startled yelp, she pulled the vibrating, chiming device out of her back pocket and had to hold back a sigh of resignation when she saw that Ino had sent a text demanding that she rejoin them. Rolling her eyes, she shut the device off and regained a little of her composure before looking up again to realize that the boy had become aware of her presence, and was now peering over the top of the book at the gap in the shelf. So, it was with a blush that reached all down her neck that Sakura made her retreat.

* * *

It seems like that girl is  _everywhere_. Since the incident with the jock in the cafeteria Gaara has learned that her name is Sakura. The name was certainly on the nose, and not just for the color of her hair. She herself seemed to be like the petals that would eventually fall from the cherry blossom trees – they ended up everywhere, carried on the wind to places that even lacked the trees to begin with. She was in a few of his classes at school, he had seen her in the lunch room, and now he was even seeing her at his workplace. Moreover, when he had seen her today, if Gaara didn't know any better, he would have thought she had been spying on him through the stacks. But that was foolish.

He vehemently reminded himself that just because the girl reminded him of the  _online avatar_  his friend used, that didn't mean a thing. Part of him felt that the feeling would go away if he talked to Sera about it, but he was reluctant to be laughed at. So that night, instead of being honest when his friend asked how he was, he dodged the question with the suggestion of the book he had stumbled across at work that day.

"The fact that they make dragons sound boring should be considered a capital offense." She snarked.

Gaara felt warm laughter bloom in his chest. "I thought that too, but it's not as bad as it sounds."

"Really? Because it sounds like someone wrote a textbook about a mythical creature."

"It's a fantasy memoir set in a Victorian style era, the main character studies dragons in the field." He explained, smiling. "I read through the first two chapters, it seems like it's a slow start but it's pretty good past that."

"I'll look for it then." She said. "What's it called again? Just the Natural History of Dragons?"

"Yep."

"Great." Sera confirmed. "Shall we go beat the shit out of some monsters now, or do we need to discuss fashion too?"

"Excuse me?"

This had led to Seraphina lamenting her afternoon with a pair of friends talking about dresses for some upcoming dance while they plowed their way through a few games of Dota.

"I don't see what the big deal is, I thought girls liked to go to dances?" Gaara asked uncertainly.

There was rush of static as Sera's snort blew air across the mic before her dry tone permeated his ears. "Do I really seem like the kind of girl who wants to put on makeup and wear shoes I can barely walk in? For the sake of a school function? It's an impressive day when I even show up at a sports event – and even then, it's usually just my brother's boxing matches."

"I wish my sister were more like that – then maybe she wouldn't be so annoying." Gaara said, making sure his tone was carefully lowered in case he should be overheard.

"You never really talk about her." Sera commented. "Careful, there's a pair trying to sneak through bottom. You complain about your brother sometimes, but not her."

"She's not worth talking about." Gaara responded sullenly. "So, what're you going to do then, if you're not going to the dance?"

"No idea. It's not for another two weeks I think." Sera said, her voice a little off in tone. "Probably hang out on my computer. Might rope Volkine and Shibuka into a movie night, but I got the impression that Shibuka might actually go this time. So, it's up in the air."

"Shibuka? Really?"

"There's a girl in his cooking class he likes. Not that I'm supposed to know that."

Gaara smirked, and tried not to feel jealous of his three online friends. "Such interesting lives you lead."

"You know it." Seraphina yawned. "Hey, I think I'm gonna make this my last game ok?"

"That's fine." He responded, and they fell into a comfortable silence as they refocused on the game they were in. Not more than a few minutes later, it had ended and Gaara found himself feeling a bit sad as he responded to her 'goodnight'.

Sometimes it was hard, knowing how close that Seraphina, Volkine, and Shibuka were irl. It made Gaara jealous and sometimes a little angry. It was unfair how they were able to be a part of the online world and still have lives outside of it, when it felt like online was the  _only_  world Gaara had. The boy who sat next to him in homeroom – the blond who had introduced himself to Gaara the very first day of school – seemed like he was determined to make friends with the quieter red-head, and in a way, it was the perfect opening to start making friends here. But putting down roots with friendships only made it hurt worse when they inevitably moved again.

Idly, Gaara wondered if in all the times he had moved, had he at one time unknowingly lived somewhere near to the trio of gamers.

But that was silly and improbable.


	8. Chapter 8

The best part of the week that isn't the weekend was certainly Friday.

On Friday the atmosphere in school was always a bit lighter, the tone of the school threaded with the low level of excitement the students had about having two days off. The infectious nature of it eased away some of the tension that sat in the muscles of Gaara's shoulders, but not by enough to truly be called relaxing. Even on Fridays he felt ready to sprint to the door. The press of the hallways, the chatter of the students, the overwhelming number of other people was oppressive and nerve-wracking.

His headphones were the saving grace. He had bought them over a year ago and was still convinced that they were the world's greatest invention. There was active sound canceling technology that used the microphone on the outside of the speakers to filter out ambient noise. The only way to comprehend anything someone said to him was to either pause the music and strain his ears or take them off. It was the only reason he was able to get through the day without having some sort of breakdown. If he closed his eyes and turned on his music, he could almost pretend he was at home in his room. A spell which was always destined to be broken when he opened them again.

The drawback was that he wasn't as aware of his surroundings as he should have been. With his head down, eyes fixed on the floor as he walked to homeroom, he didn't notice the pair of boys that were roughhousing in the hall ahead of him. So, he had no way of dodging when the heavier of the two bumped into him so hard that they almost went crashing onto the floor.

In the several seconds that followed as they both gathered their wits again, Gaara noticed several things almost at once. The first being that it was clear that it hadn't been a fight – just a pair of boys acting stupid, so there was no danger of getting involved. The second thing he noticed was that in the wake of the commotion and the loudness of Gaara's textbook hitting the floor that had even permeated his headphone induced deafness, everyone in a ten-foot radius was now staring at them. Thirdly, he noticed that that pink haired girl was  _somehow_  there.  _Again._  Why was she always there?

She was saying something to him that he couldn't hear, and didn't care to hear. What he cared about was that everyone was staring. They may have also been looking at the rather heavy boy who had knocked into him, but it felt like it was all on him. There was a slight roaring in his ears that had nothing to do with the punk rock that was playing in the headphones, and his pulse felt like it was trying to leap out of his skin. The other boy had a hand around his arm that pulled him back into balance, and Gaara wondered if he could feel him shaking. Tearing out of his grip and ignoring whatever he was saying, the red-head grabbed his book from the linoleum floor and walked as fast as he could towards his class.

* * *

"Well that was weird." Grunted Shikamaru. "You ok Choji?"

"Yeah." The heavier boy said, sounding distracted.

"This is why you shouldn't act like morons in public." Sakura said dryly. "Then maybe we could actually contain the secret of your utter insanity."

"Speak for yourself." Shikamaru snorted.

"Do you think he's alright?"

Sakura turned towards Choji with a frown as she closed her locker. "You mean that guy you bumped?"

"Yeah." He said, nodding as his eyes followed the new kid as he rounded a corner out of sight. "He looked really freaked out for a second there."

"He kinda did, huh?"

"Troublesome. Isn't he the kid that Naruto keeps trying to get to be his friend?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn.

"Naruto does that with everybody." Sakura chuckled. "But yeah, I always see him trying to talk to him in first period. I haven't really been paying attention though."

"Whatever, everything still a-go for tonight?"

"Tannis and I will be there with bells on, as they say." The pinkette said with a grin, though it did falter a little. "I'd offer to get on early, but Tannis said he doesn't get off until seven, and I've got something to pick up at the store."

"Well we were going to be up late anyway." Choji said with a grin. "That's why we have things like soda and candy."

"Ok there Cho." She snickered. "I'll see you two at lunch."

"See ya."

The walk to first period was much less eventful than the visit to her locker had been. But she did notice that when she entered the classroom, the red-haired boy had his head buried in his arms with the hood of his jacket pulled over his head. She wondered why being bumped into was such a big deal.

* * *

He would never admit it, but mindfulness meditation was actually useful. It sounded silly, and didn't seem like it would help, but remarkably it did. Slumped forwards on his desk, Gaara focused on his breathing and the perceived silence he was wrapped in. His pulse had gone down again, and he no longer felt the fight-or-flight response that he had when everyone had been staring at him. This was why he hated school. This was exactly why.

He nearly jumped out of his seat when someone touched his shoulder. Flinching away from the contact, Gaara lifted his head to stare at Naruto Uzumaki with complete confusion and almost a little annoyance. The blond smiled at him and gestured around his ears. Reluctantly, Gaara removed his headphones, hating how loud the sounds of the school inevitably were. With the awful acoustics and the hundreds of people talking at once, it was loud no matter what.

"Are you alright?" Naruto was asking.

"Why?" the word was harsh and left his mouth before he could stop them. The reaction it elicited from Naruto almost made him feel a little guilty. His smile slipped into a frown and his brow pulled together.

"You had your head down." He said carefully. "I wanted to make sure you weren't sick or something. But really, are you alright?"

This guy. He was incredibly nice for no reason, and Gaara had yet to hear anyone say less than a positive word about him. Except maybe from some of the more popular assholes, not that they counted. And here he was, in the face of Gaara's obstinance, ignoring it and plowing forwards still trying to befriend the enigmatic red-head. Or so it appeared anyway.

Gaara's shoulders slumped a little. "I'm fine. I just wish the day was over already."

"Same!" Naruto agreed. "I've got a date on Saturday! The last thing I want is to sit through another one of Mr. Hatake's English classes, believe it!"

He was so  _loud_. "English is ok…"

Naruto barked out a laugh. "You sound like my sister. Sakura is a massive nerd – she's got this whole floor to ceiling bookshelf in her room that's  _stuffed_  with books-"

Sakura. This energetic weirdo was the brother of  _that_  girl? That couldn't have been a coincidence. No now it was just the universe fucking with him. It was starting to get annoying, and pissing him off. What had been fascination and curiosity was now ire. Couldn't he go one single damn day without he cropping up somewhere in his view? There were over three thousand students in this school, and he really couldn't avoid her? It was nonsense and bullshit.

He didn't interact with Naruto further than that, though he wasn't so rude as to put his headphones back over his ears. The blond didn't seem to notice as he carried on a one-sided conversation before the aforementioned silver-haired teacher arrived in the classroom. Even then, Gaara hardly listened to the lesson he was teaching; instead the red-haired young man was busying himself by thinking about the dungeon crawl planned for that evening. The party had finally reached then end of the quest chain and when they had logged out it was in front of the entrance to a large, yawning cave that the forum had called a labyrinth.

* * *

Sakura stared at the book in her hands with absolute surprise.

She had told Shikamaru the truth, and had left school with every intention of dropping by the bookstore and picking up the novel that Tannis had recommended on her way home. What she had not expected was the cover art on the front. The title was simple, claiming to be a memoir written by the fictitious character of 'Lady Trent'. The background was the color of parchment, and its focal point was the meticulous anatomical drawing of a dragon, the drawing starting off with the outward features before peeling away skin to dissect musculature and then further to examine bone.

It was the same book that the redhead had been flipping through the last time she had been in here.  _His name is Gaara_. She reminded herself, having asked Naruto what it was earlier in the week.

Speaking of, she had actually seen him in the café when she had come in. He was working behind the register, and looking none too pleased about it. Probably filling in for the girl who usually ran it. Meaning that there was absolutely zero chance she wouldn't talk to him this time, as she did in fact have to pay for the book in her hands. As she walked to the appropriate side of the store, she wondered if she should take the book as an opportunity to actually talk to him, he had seemed at least vaguely interested in it last time. But then that would mean admitting that she had been spying on him, which was absolutely not happening.

Before she even realized it, she was standing in front of him, her eyes narrowed in thought as she chewed her lip and mindlessly put the book on the counter.

"Spying on me, and then reading the book I had? That's a little stalker-esque."

The words made her freeze. No that wasn't it. The baritone that shaped the sounds was what held her like a deer in the headlights. Sakura's eyes widened as she met his own. They were the color of mint ice cream, and ringed in black that she was sure was not eyeliner. Was it a side effect of not sleeping, she wondered, knowing how many nights he stayed up later than she herself did. But that wasn't possible was it? There was no way this was him, no way at all. Surely, she had just misheard –

"You know if you take a picture it will last longer." He snapped, getting a little irritated.

No. That was definitely him.

Her voice trembled a little as she spoke. "Tannis?"


	9. Chapter 9

Shikamaru Nara was not one for phone calls. If you were texting or IM'ing someone, if the conversation became too annoying or too tedious, it was a lot easier to back out of the conversation without stirring up conflict. It was also easier to postpone a conversation or interaction if you just didn't feel like talking; once again this could be done without too terribly offending someone. On the whole, Shikamaru found that people were annoying and troublesome to deal with. There were a few exceptions, like his friends. And even they could sometimes be annoying and troublesome.

Times like when Sakura called him six times in a row even after he didn't respond the first time. For the love of kami, he hadn't even been in the same room as his phone. Was it so hard to leave a voicemail if it was so important? Was it really so hard?

And there it went again, even as the brunette glared down at his phone, the screen lit up again with that stupid photo of Sakura from the last time they went to NekoCon. She had dressed up as Madoka Kaname and had looked absolutely out of character. With a sigh of annoyance, he braced himself for some form of drama and hit the answer button.

"What?"

"Shika! Finally!" She didn't sound like she was in any immediate danger or crisis that would have warranted the ridiculous amount of calling. "I've been trying to get ahold of you."

"So I gathered." He deadpanned.

"Don't be such a sourpuss." She teased. "Hey, I need you to grab Choji and meet me at the Nishigawa Bookstore."

Shikamaru paused, frowning, and really reluctant. He really didn't want to. "Why?"

"Because I asked you too, lazy ass." She said, sounding annoyed. "Please? I'll buy you coffee."

"Fine." He growled. "Is there a time requirement, princess? Do I need to be there in the next five minutes or you'll castrate me or something?"

"Ok, wow." She snorted. "What the fuck happened to piss you off?"

"Sorry." He said after a beat, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling bad about snapping. "Parents have been arguing about something since I got home. Not a great vibe."

"Shika I'm sorry." Sakura sighed. "Hey, if you want we can hang out at my place tonight?"

"I doubt they'll be at it for quite that long." He chuckled. "Besides, we're supposed to be gaming with Tannis later, remember?"

"Somehow I don't think he'd mind all that much." There was something in her tone that made Shikamaru raise his eyebrows. It was something bubbly and excited.

"What do you know?" he asked warily.

"Don't worry about it." she chimed, entirely too happy about something.

"Troublesome." The boy grunted.

"Are you on your way or not?" his friend prodded.

"Yeah yeah." He said. "I've got something to do first but then I'll go get Choji. Is an hour delay acceptable?"

"Definitely. See you then!" and she hung up without another word. Still sounding entirely too happy about something.

Shikamaru stared down at his phone with mild annoyance. He loved Sakura, he really did, but there were times where she could be as high-maintenance as Ino. And he really wasn't one for high-maintenance anything. He consoled himself with the rationalization that at least the things that the pinkette got riled up it wasn't ever because of something stupid like a new outfit – barring that one time Choji had gifted her a limited edition MGT shirt for her birthday last year.

* * *

Gaara still wasn't entirely sure he wasn't going crazy and hallucinating.

Twenty minutes ago, his world seemed to have been turned on its head.

He would have recognized Seraphina's voice anywhere. Even quiet and stuttering as though she couldn't believe he was real.

He'd been a little perturbed that the pink haired girl was buying the same book he had recommended to his cleric, and had thrown a barb at her in response to his own ire. And then she had looked up at him with nothing but pure shock on her face. Her eyes had widened almost comically, and her mouth had moved soundlessly like a gaping fish for several moments.

And then she spoke.

He though it was odd, the idea that he'd never heard her speak before. But then he did always have his headphones on. He thought back to earlier that day, the incident in the hallway that still made his skin crawl with the phantom sensation of a crowd of eyes staring at him. She had tried to talk to him then, but he couldn't hear her. He was privately grateful he hadn't, he didn't think his brain could have handled the anxiety as well as the shock he now felt.

Seraphina. His favorite cleric. His online best-friend. Standing in front of him in flesh and blood. And she actually did have pink hair.

The thought made his cheeks hot with shame. Of all the things to first say, he'd commented on her hair. But she had laughed anyways and told him it was natural.

After that, she had acted completely normal. It was like breathing in fresh air. Here he had been annoyed with being the replacement cashier, and this unexpected delight had just walked into his world and smiled at him like she'd done it a thousand times.

She had reintroduced herself to him as Sakura Haruno, smashing through the notion of any sort of barrier between them and charging ahead. It had been with a blush that she confirmed his name was Gaara. He had felt a strange sensation flutter in his chest at hearing his real name from her lips, when was the last time someone said it with that amount of gentleness? He couldn't honestly recall. He didn't ask how she knew his name, and he didn't admit that he already knew hers.

Instead an older woman whose face looked like a withered apple had cleared her throat behind Sakura and given him a pointed look over the younger girl's shoulder. They had both gotten the message and Sakura had hurried to complete her transaction; before she left however, she had made a promise to wait in the café until after his shift was over. When he had protested, she had shaken her head.

"I've got homework I can do." She had said with a lopsided smile. "And if I get  _really_  bored, I can read the book you recommended me."

And so now she was sitting at one of the larger tables in the corner next to the window, her face screwed up in concentration as she poured over some textbook she had. Every so often she would look over at him, and when he finally stopped looking away he had seen the brilliant smile she had thrown at him.

Gaara felt unusually weightless as he continued working, a warm feeling of contentedness curling around inside his chest as time progressed. It wasn't until two boys he only vaguely recognized entered and made a bee line for her table that he faltered. One was the boy he had bumped into in the hall. The other he shared a class with. It was with a wave of disappointment he hadn't been expecting that he accepted this to mean that he wouldn't be able to sit with her once he got off.

* * *

"Do we get to know why you've summoned us yet?" The lazy drawl was followed by the sound of a chair being dragged across the hardwood floor of the café. Sakura smirked as she finished jotting something down.

"I don't know. You said an hour, and yet it's been an hour and a half almost." She said, smirking at her friends as they sat down. "I might've decided not to tell you now."

"Ok now I'm curious." Choji said, frowning. "You've got that look on your face."

"What look?" Sakura asked, faltering.

Shikamaru was the one who answered. "The same one you always have on whenever you're about to throw us into the deep end of something troublesome."

The pinkette snorted as she shuffled her notes together and closed them inside her biology book. "I have no such expression. I called a meeting of the minds because there's been a change of plans for this evening."

"A change of plans?" Choji exchanged a look with their lankier friend. "That doesn't sound foreboding at all, does it?"

"Oh, quit being such a jerk." She said, standing up. "I'll get us coffee. Wants?"

"White mocha."

"Black."

Sakura tried not to roll her eyes as she headed back towards the coffee bar. She also tried not to pay attention to the way her heartbeat sped up with every step she took. Or the way that Gaara stood up a little straighter when he saw she was coming back over. Though if she had been paying attention, she wouldn't have been so surprised when he spoke first, his tone a little sorrowful.

"So, I guess I'll just talk to you tonight online then?"

"Huh?" oh wow Sakura, really eloquent.

The boy's forehead creased and he nodded back towards the table behind her. "You had friends show up, I assume you came over here to tell me you weren't available later?"

Ah, so that's what he thought. It made Sakura a little sad to see how easily he dismissed himself. "Not even a little bit. I called them here to meet you. And I came over here to get them coffee like I said I would."

His expression of confusion deepened. "You want me to – I mean –  _why_?"

"You've technically already met them." She said with a smile. Leaning against the counter a little, she turned sideways so she had a view of the table. "The chubby one with the light brown hair is Shibuka. The skinny one with his hair in that dumb ponytail is Volkine. But from now on I guess you can just call them Choji and Shikamaru."

* * *

"What the hell is that all about?"

Shikamaru frowned and turned in his chair to follow Choji's gaze, landing squarely on their pink haired friend. Their pink haired friend who appeared to be flirting with the cashier. She had a smile on her face that he'd never seen before, and she had a hand on her hip and was leaning with the other hand against the counter. She seemed to be talking rather easily with the boy that Shikamaru recognized as the quiet new kid. Even as he and Choji watched, Sakura said something that had the other boy chuckling. Sakura seemed to practically light up at this reaction and she said something else that made them both grin foolishly at each other before not-so-covertly looking over at the corner table.

"Have you ever seen her act like that?" Choji asked, sounding about as bewildered as Shikamaru felt.

Turning back around in his seat, Shikamaru shook his head with a frown of confusion. "No. But when the fuck did that start?"

"Do you think it's why she called us here?" The heftier boy's frown twitched briefly into something closer to distaste.

Shikamaru shook his head. "No chance. If that were the case, she would have called Ino."

"She's coming back over." Was about the only warning he got before a grinning, bubbly, excited version of Sakura threw herself back into her seat.

"He said he would bring the coffee over once it's finished." Her smile was a little too wide and her eyes were dancing just a little too brightly.

"Care to tell us what's going on now?" drawled the brunette, a scowl marring his usually bored expression.

She was twining a bubblegum lock of her hair around her finger as she grinned unrepentantly at them. "Not quite yet. But like I said, there's been a change of plans."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Choji asked, eyeing the girl warily. "You're acting like a crazy person."

A laugh burst from Sakura's mouth before a much more familiar grin split her face. "I was going to see if we wanted to have a movie night or something. Leave the online world for a bit."

"And you had to call us all the way here for that?" Choji asked, still frowning.

At this, the pinkette's cheeks darkened and her eyes lost a lot of their mirth, annoyance taking its place. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm in a good mood, and I wanted to spend some real time with my friends, is that so strange? If you didn't want to come you really didn't have to. You could have just said no, rather than come here and act like jerks about it."

Shikamaru slumped in his seat and exchanged a look with his other friend, whom looked as chastised as the lazy genius felt. She had a point. Just because she was weirdly happy didn't give them the right to be suspicious. Even if it was weird. The brunette looked apologetically at his female friend.

"Sorry. It's just strange to see you this…perky. It caught us off guard."

She shook her head, her smile retuning, though it wasn't as bright as before. "It's fine. But you really could have just asked me why I was so happy instead of being all suspicious."

"Why  _are_  you so happy though?" Choji asked carefully.

"I made a discovery." She answered cryptically as her eyes flicked to something that was just over Shikamaru's shoulder. They didn't get a chance to ask what she meant before a new presence arrived at their table. Her smile returned as she chuckled at the redheaded boy who was precariously holding three cups of coffee. "You couldn't have used a tray or something?"

"We don't have any." He fired back, his ears going slightly pink. "Most people just come up and get their coffee."

"You're the one who offered to bring it to the table." She said with a grin.

"Shut up." He growled.

Shikamaru felt like he was in the twilight zone. Even as the guy was sitting the coffee down on the table, he continued to banter with Sakura. And it made so much more sense now, everything from the demand to meet her here to the way she had been apparently flirting with this guy at the register. It had taken his a few seconds to recognize it, but hearing his voice in repartee with Sakura's was all the identification Shikamaru needed.

"Tannis?" he asked, feeling stunned, he glanced at his best friend to fine that the heavier boy had an absolutely dumbfounded expression on his face. The redhead in question gave an unsure grin as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Technically it's Gaara." He said. "But whatever is fine."

In the stunned silence that immediately followed, Sakura chimed in again. "So about that movie night…"


	10. Hiatus Explanation (Temporary Posting)

So, to those of you that have been with me so far, and that still care to read this odd little story of mine, I owe you an explanation to you all.

The reason I've taken so long to update is what I can really only call a bit of writer's block mixed with a writing identity crisis.

I did not begin this story with the intention of it becoming some epic must-read gaasaku fanfic. I did not begin it really with any expectations of it being an amazing story. I wrote it because it was the story I wanted to read. It was the story I was missing, the setting and the portrayal I wanted. I didn't care what tropes I used or didn't use, I didn't care what was or wasn't overused as a plot device. It was simply what I wanted to read, but couldn't find. It was supposed to be fun and light hearted.

And then I even got myself someone who wanted to beta read for me! Which I was both surprised and thrilled by. This person was clearly as new to being a beta reader, as I was to officially having one.

That said, this person - whom is beginning to be annoyed by the fact that I've not actually thanked them openly in my story's Author's Notes, mostly out of forgetfulness - is not someone i'm going to name. Now or ever. I have two reasons for this. The first being that I no longer desire to credit them with any further creativity with the story, and the second reason being that I don't want them to be subject to any negativity.

As my conversations with this person carried on, I began to feel pressured about how my story's plot was developing. I felt criticized for placing elements into the story that I felt made it unique but were apparently uninteresting to others - I had a whole subplot about the story of what was going on in the video game with a cool ending battle planned out, but never wrote because now that Gaara was physically accessible to the others, that plot no longer served purpose to anyone but me, apparently. The real life confrontation and climax of the story was called unoriginal and overused. Somewhere along the line I started writing the story and making edits to what I now look back on as an ordinary reader who somehow had me writing the story that they wanted. Not the story that I wanted. Some of their behavior was a little callous. Some of it was petulant. But all of it made me feel apologetic. Like my own ideas weren't quite good enough, and that clearly I needed their help. I tried ignoring them for a while, but even so, I became increasingly discouraged, to the point that I stopped writing. Not just here, but on other platforms, and even on my own actual manuscript. I didn't feel good enough.

That said, I in no way am trying to blame this lack of self worth as a writer solely on this poor choice of a beta reader. I've dealt with self-worth issues and depression for as long as I can remember. I'm always trying to please other people. I'm always doubting if I am in fact good enough. So this long hiatus has not been only, or even directly their fault, but they certainly fed the psychosis.

So please be patient with me as I write the next few chapters. I am going back to what I wanted to write in the first place. Hopefully people will still like it. Hopefully I am good enough. But if I'm not, that's fine. Really it is. Because I'm writing this for ME.

For those of you who decide to abandon ship because you think I'm being bitchy or obnoxious or what have you, that's fine and I respect that. For those of you who are eagerly awaiting the next actual chapter, thank you and I will update soon.


End file.
